The chemistry of a-aminoalkylphosphonates has progressed over the past decade. Thus, methods of their synthesis have been developed and improved [1], and the biologic activity of these compounds has been studied. Much effort has been directed to chemical modification of a-aminophosphonates [2]. It is known that in the presence of triethylamine as catalyst these compounds can add to alkyl iso(thio)cyanates with formation of N,N`-disubstituted (thio)ureas. The latter are stable compounds which undergo cyclization into 1,4,2-diazaphospholidines only under rigid conditions in the presence of 1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]octane as catalyst [3]. Proceeding with the development of synthetic approaches to new heterophosphacyclanes with endocyclic P3C bonds on the basis of functional a-substituted alkylphosphonates [4, 5], we explored ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ the reactions of diphenyl a-(phenylamino)benzylphosphonate I with aromatic and phosphorylated iso-(thio)cyanates. We found that phosphonate I reacts with phenyl isocyanate and phenyl isothiocyanate neither under heating nor in the presence of any catalysts (such as 1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]octane and triethylamine), probably due to reduced basicity of the nitrogen atom in this compound. We succeeded in accomplishing this reaction with a more active phosphorylated isocyanate II. The reaction gave diazaphospholidine V and chloromethylphosphonate VI and occurred by the following scheme involving intermediate formation of urea III and its cyclization into phospholidine IV with phenol liberation. Subsequent phenolysis of heterocycle IV results in P3N bond rupture and formation of the final products.
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄAccording to the 1 H NMR spectra of the reaction mixture, phosphpholidine V consists of a mixture of two diastereomers in a 76 : 24 ratio. The composition and structure of product V were confirmed by means of high-resolution mass spectrometry.1,5-Diphenyl-4-phenoxy-1,3,4l 5 -diazaphospholidin-2-one 4-oxide (V). A mixture of 7.06 g of phosphonate I and 3.76 g of isocyanate II in 20 ml of anhydrous chloroform was heated at 70oC for 3 h. One day later, 3.2 g (44%) of compound V was separated,